PeaceTech Exchange Program (PTX)

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Peace Technical Exchange program is designed to enhance the technological skills of non tech-savvy participants, whether they are members of civil society or government. Toward this goal the PTX Provincial Government and Civil Society Collaboration series in Iraq will conduct four events in Iraq that provide training on the use of low-cost, easy to implement technologies that empower both citizens and government officials to improve transparency and accountability in Iraq.

POJECT DETAILS

PROGRESS OVERVIEW

PTX project started by end of 2014 with collaborative efforts between Sanad for Peacebuilding and USIP on developing the strategic plan and the right format to achieve the desired outputs. On January 5th, Sanad’s team started the project implementation with setting the performance management plan and activities timelines. Then began designing the required tools to collect information, report on and monitor progress and provide funding to CSOs. Some of these tools were:

Pre / Post Event and Follow Up Surveys

Quarterly, follow up reports and the Performance Management Plan

Mini-Grants Procedure and Proposal Documents

Alongside this, Sanad’s team was working on identifying the required logistics and budget to run the PTX events in the targeted provinces; and outreach to the local technologists who will train the participants.

“We are glad that we have partnered with Sanad to implement the PTX series in Iraq. .”

– Timothy Receveur, PeaceTech Lab

PeaceTech Exchange Technologies

The technologies presented at the PTX highlighted three different yet complimentary areas to help participants utilize these technologies for better results.

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Data Collection

This is the first step for any organization working with data. Data collection can be achieved using different tools, depending on the audience, the environment and geographic area to be covered.

KoBo Toolbox: a survey tool that works offline & provides the ability to gather data without an internet connection.VotoMobile: this is an SMS and IVR system that facilitates the interaction with people in different geographical locations that are not easy to reach.StoryMaker: a video, text and audio shooting and authoring tool that works completely from a smartphone without the need for a computer.Legislation Lab: it is a website designed to help governments, civil society organizations and citizens collaborate, vote and discuss on laws and legislation.

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Data Visualization

Visual representation data is very important as it give the receiver of the information a quick outlook to help them understand the data easily.

Ushahidi, CartoDB and Mapbox: crowed-sourcing maps, where participants can collect different types of data and then present them on a map that can be shared with the audience. This tool is for data collection, visualization and sharing.Tableau: this tool represents data in charts and diagrams

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Data Sharing

Once data is collected, organizations need to analyze these data and then share with their audience to send a certain message, get their buy-in on a specific cause or to keep them informed about a situation. Most tools we use in data visualization can also serve as data sharing tools, in addition to:

WordPress: an easy to use web authoring tool for creating websites and blogs and for sharing different kinds of data whether using videos, text, photos or incorporating a crowed-sourced map.Media Campaigns: social media tools are the most common these days, many people use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. We help participants utilize these tools to run effective media campaigns to share information with their followers.

Basra PTX

The PTX series started in March 2015 in Basra, and one of the important milestones was to get the buy-in from local CSOs and the local government of Basra.
The team conducted a pre-event survey to help identify which CSOs can join the PTX based on the CSOs experience, field of specialty and willingness in collaborating with the government. A similar survey was conducted with the local government but this time the selection was made based on the participants experience with technology and willingness to adapting technology at work.

Sulaimanyah PTX

Sulaimanyah PTX series started on May 2nd for 3 days for CSOs and on May 6th to 7th for government employees and officials.

The participation was tremendous, everyone was engaged and interested in learning more about the 10 technologies brought by the PTX. Some participants were eager to learn all the 10 technologies at the same time!.

Baghdad PTX

On Saturday 25th of July 2015 exactly at 09:00 AM, the event stared up on Gilgamesh Hall in Babylon Warwich hotel, Baghdad, gathering participants of Local civil society organizations, unlike the usual, members of the Network of Iraqi Facilitators have been invited to the event.